Perry in his first public appearance since failed presidential bid: “I’m not slipping off into the sunset”

posted at 8:20 pm on February 7, 2012 by Tina Korbe

Don’t know what it is about the guy, but Rick Perry inspires me. Remember the day after his apex-of-awkward “oops” moment? He hit the morning shows to say, “This ain’t a day for quittin’.” Talk about a motivating moment. Yesterday, he repeated his demonstration of the power of positive thinking. In his first public appearance since he dropped his bid for president, Perry was upbeat, outgoing and focused on the future:

“I’m not slipping off into the sunset, I’m not riding off into the West,” said Perry at a fundraiser for the Republican Party of Williamson County, reported The Texas Tribune. “I’ve got plenty of fight left in this old 61-year-old body.” …

“I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world. It was just extraordinary. I would not trade it for anything that I’ve ever done in my 60-plus years of living,” he said.

Perry, who vowed to continue his work in Texas, also said that the movement he campaigned on is “bigger than any one man or woman.”

“It goes forward at a ballot box near you in 2012,” he said.

Perry, who famously never lost an election before in his life, reminded his audience that he comes from a winning tradition as a Texas A&M grad. He made light of his recent failure, suggesting that he wasn’t outscored but that he did run out of time.

“I’m really not used to running out of time,” he said.

Fact is, he hasn’t. As he put it, he still has time to forward the conservative agenda. As long as we have hearts pumping and lungs breathing, we haven’t run out of time, either. As Mary Pickford put it, “You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.” Perry might have fallen, but he’s not staying down. Good for him.

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Perry waited to long to get in the race. I understand he had back surgery that held him back and i am sure the first few debates were influenced by this surgery and his discomfort for surgery I miss you rick.

Meanwhile we’re stuck with the 4 idiots we have left, instead of solid conservative governors like Perry or Huntsman– we deserve the candidates we elect

thurman on February 7, 2012 at 10:32 PM

Yep ole Red State Erickson, and Laura Ingraham beating that Perry’s got to get out of the race drum, because you know if he did somebody would be able to beat Romney LOL! Erickson is not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Hey remember when it was important to be able to be a great debater and when Perry dropped out, debating skills to face Obama weren’t important anymore. I don’t think they make a scale that can measure the phoniness of media bunnies.

Perry is a truly good man to the core and had a stellar record, he deserved better from our voters.

But this primary has zero to do with actual track records and all about stupid sound bites in this reality show, debate contest we’ve made it into

Meanwhile we’re stuck with the 4 idiots we have left, instead of solid conservative governors like Perry or Huntsman– we deserve the candidates we elect

thurman on February 7, 2012 at 10:32 PM

Exactly. And add Governor Gary Johnson to that list, the 2-term successful, popular New Mexican governor who was a pro at cutting taxes and spending and who also built his own successful business from the ground up.

Real leaders with real records. It’s too bad that they aren’t the 3 candidates we have left.

People begged Rick Perry to run, he did it to please us. He should have waited another month to recover from his back surgery.

Who cares what Laura Ingraham says? I stopped listening to her years ago. She is a RINO now, along with Coulter.
Perry ran out of money and chose not to go into debt for voters that were against him. He refused to back down on ethanol subsidies in Iowa, that’s why he lost there.

Perry could do a lot of good in helping to elect a conservative senate. He’s got the best record and he’s most popular with conservatives and could launch this role with an inspiring CPAC speech. He’d be great on the campaign trail promoting conservative candidates.